Prequill
by penultimate-lifeform
Summary: An "after SA2" thing, tieing up some loose ends, and also serving as a prequil for a story that I might write if I get enough positive feedback.


DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the characters, settings, or anything. Heck, I don't even own a copy of the game... actually, I do.  
  
Pre-quill? Geddit? Geddit? Because of the... hedgehog, and th-- okay, you don't get it. Never mind.  
  
Anyway, this is basically a prequil (IS that how you spell it? I can't think now) to a story that I may or may not write, seeing as I think this is basically a good stand-alone story anyway, which I just wrote to kinda round off Sonic Adventure 2, and make a bit more sense of The Truth About 50 Years Ago (an official Sonic Team thingy about the storyline, put it in google and you should find something), etc, etc. Anyway, give me some feedback, yay or nay and a reason, and if I get enough positive stuff, I may embark on a proper story.  
  
Uh, did I mention that this is about Shadow?  
  
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From: Rouge (ID: 000042)  
  
To: President (ID: 000001)  
  
I have uncovered some new information about Shadow, which possibly throws a, well, shadow over what I sent before. What follows is log data which was stored within the ARK's main computer, which was only made accessable after Gerald's program was run:  
  
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Day 37  
  
The Shadow DNA has been implanted into the lizard's cells, and now all we have to do is wait. The lizard, which is being codenamed Biolizard for now, should grow very quickly to a large size after birth, then remain that way, unaging, until it's ultimate death. Since we have been unable, so far, to perfect immortality within the DNA, and many on the ARK are arguing that it is impossible anyway, we are creating this prototype without immortality. Its use of the chaos emeralds, and hopefully its instictive ability to be able to use chaos control, however, should certainly make it very impressive. Debate is still going on about whether the lizard was the correct species of animal to try the DNA changes on, but so far it is the best we have found.  
  
Day 38  
  
The Biolizard is already almost at its predicted full height, and is continuing to grow rapidly. There have been problems, however, and the lizard has had to be put on a special life-support machine, feeding it directly with energy from the chaos emeralds, since its body seems to require an energy type which it cannot produce through eating like most lifeforms. The life-support system is being powered by small quantities of chaos emerald power, and the production "chaos drives" from the emeralds, which we are hoping to use as fuel if future Ultimate Lifeform models have the same problem, is currently being perfected.  
  
Day 39  
  
Biolizard is stable, chaos drives are working perfectly. More desirable lifeform beign searched for.  
  
Day 42  
  
A possible breakthrough! Our research scientists have found a group of lifeforms known as "chao". These chao, both under test conditions and real life, have been known to adapt to their surroundings, by reproducing parts of other animals. For example, the chao is in an area where there is much water. Thus, the animals around are largly aquatic animals, adapted for water, and their limbs will be adapted for swimming. After being in contact with these for long enough, the chao can change it's limb(s) to copy those of the aquatic animals, and thus it will be able to use its new limbs to swim well. The idea itself is amazing, but it's implications for Project Shadow are terrific! The chao can even have different body parts from more than one animal! Tests are continuing, but so far, it looks very positive.  
  
Day 50  
  
Biolizard is much the same. Most research now is being focused on the chao. We have so far introduced the Shadow DNA into 57 chao. Of these, 42 did not survive. Of the remaining, 3 were white, 3 were blue, and 9 were black, leading to the hypothesis that the black chao are better at holding the Shadow DNA. The colour of the chao seems to be based on who is working with that particular chao, and how they are treated by that person. Research into both of these hypotheses is continuing. The chao which successfully took on the Shadow DNA have become much more powerful, but they are still limited very much by their size and build.  
  
Day 60  
  
We have realised our mistake. At first it was thought that younger chao would be weaker, and so they should first be injected with the Shadow DNA, then introduced to the Chaos Emeralds and Chaos Drives. This only had a limited effect however. We had not realised, however, that when a chao is young and formless, it is more reactive to its surroundings. A chao which had only just hatched was introduced to the Chaos Emeralds, and immediately began to grow to about 2 - 3 times as large as it's original size. A similar test was tried with a recently born black chao, which had still retained its original shape, and it, too, grew into a much larger chao, and it's shape had become more huminoid. The Shadow DNA has been injected into a number of these "super-chao", with excellent results. We are now perfecting the Shadow Chao.  
  
Day 65  
  
Further research with normal chao has shown clear patterns in the chao's particular strengths and weaknesses when given chaos drives of different colours. So far the dark chao which has been given mainly green drives has been most successful when given the Shadow DNA.  
  
Day 69  
  
Shadow is born!  
  
We further research into chao after it enters its "coccoon" shows that it is finally ready for adult life, and most difinitively takes on the shape that is most advantageous to its surroundings, something which of course we have manipulated with the drives. After this, we discovered that chao in the adult stage can change again, but this time more slowly, to be suited perfectly for its surroundings, and once again this is affected by the colour of drives given to it. A super-chao which was dark, and given only green drives, was thengiven the Shadow DNA. The results were astounding. It was much faster, much stronger and much more intelligent. It was not vunerable any more, and tests show that it will not die easily, and for little or no reason like all other chao or superchao who were given the Shadow DNA before this stage.  
  
What's more, it can communicate. It is being given a tape which was specially designed to teach the Ultimate Lifeform to talk, in the event that we actually managed to reach that stage, and it picked up much of the vocabulary amazingly fast. This vocabulary is only basic, however, because it was assumed that this was all that it would be able to learn, and thoughts that it could talk at all were thought of as extremely optomistic. To teach it more advanced vocabulary, and human interaction, we have turned it over to Maria to talk with, since she was the person who originally played with it in order to turn it from blue to black. We are very optimistic, and already celebrations are taking place, and much of the work is being written up formally.   
  
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At this point the log becomes statistical information which is not very interesting, although I have sent a copy of the full log to the research dept.  
  
I believe that this revision of my original information also marks the end of my contract, since I have done everything that we agreed, so I will be expecting my jewels ASAP.  
  
*  
  
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*  
  
*  
  
G.U.N Prisinor #1304702  
  
Name: Alan R Dixon  
  
Total sentence served: 27 days  
  
Reason for imprisonment: Amongst the scientists carrying out the highly dangerous "Shadow" Project.  
  
Reason for release: Information given regarding the "Shadow" Project.  
  
Current status: Missing. Police search being conducted.  
  
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A sharp 'Ugh!' noise came from the small capsule, followed by a groaning 'Guhhh'. Alan quickly pressed the button on his console, and the door slid open, letting the form of Shadow fall out.  
  
"Remind me not to do that," He murmured, picking himself up "it hurts." He looked around "What am I doing here, anyway?"  
  
"Oh my God! Shadow!" Alan had a look of wonder on his face.  
  
"I assume that you're the one who took me here, so you needn't be so amazed. Why am I here? How am I here?"  
  
"Shadow," Alan replied, getting a hold of himself "You died when you hit the Earth's atmosphere. Burned up. But your thoughts, memories, personality, everyhting, were being transmitted back to the ARK automatically, and have been transplanted into... you."  
  
"A clone." Shadow muttered  
  
"Exactly! But, well," he paused "Not... exactly. You are not a perfect clone. A few improvements have been made. You are Shadow V2!"  
  
Shadow looked down at his body, and started examining himself in an almost comic fashion, as if expecting to find some kind of spikes or ray-guns built into his body. He saw nothing so exciting, but he did notice that his red streaks were even brighter than before, and seemed almost to send out a glow. He grinned.  
  
"Shadow V2" he said, looking up at Alan again with a wide smile on his face "Just wait till Sonic sees me now!"  
  
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Fin.   
  
Author's notes:  
  
Well, there it is. Works on it's own, but is definately a prequil to something bigger. I'll tell you now that that wasn't my best writing, but I always seem to be able to do my best writing at about 0:00 - 1:00AM, which of course makes it difficult for me. Anyway, if you liked it, if you hated it, just send in your views and I'll decide whether or not to continue. If I do, the actual story will mainly be conventional narriative like the last bit, but you'll certainly see some other stuff like Rouge's letter and G.U.N.'s prisoner record in there (Thank you Stephen King's "Carrie" and Robert Cormbier's "i am the cheese" for introducting me to that kinda mixed narriative stuff)  
  
Oh, and my putting asterixes (asterixi, asteri, asteristium, asteresteraunt, whatever) above and below the lines is nothing to do with me thinking that they visually add to the fic, it's just that if I didn't, fanfiction.com will (I think) take it upon itself to delete all the large gaps. Although now that I think about it, perhaps it doesn't.  
  
Okay, I'm rambling. Anyway I'll leave you with 2 instructions:  
  
1. Review  
  
2. Go to www.homestarrunner.net, "it's .com"  
  
uh... make that www.homestarrunner.com 


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